' ' Cinema Romantico: Further Definitive Proof of the Movie Gods

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Further Definitive Proof of the Movie Gods

I have written before of my immense love for the opening expansive tracking shot committed to film by Paul Thomas Anderson at the open of his 1997 classic "Boogie Nights." In fact, I like it so much I discussed it in my 1,000th post. A shot that is not merely a technical marvel, two minutes plus moving down a street and around and into a club and across the dance floor, etc., but a thematic marvel in the way it introduces this dysfunctional but loving porn-movie making family and eventually, at the very end, finding the brand new member of the gang.


I was 20 years old at the time. I'd always loved movies but I was really only in the infant stages of understanding how movies worked and understanding what I wanted from movies and how I related to movies. And this shot, to quote Berlin, took my breath away. It still does. It always will. It's why the day after the movie I bought the "Boogie Nights" soundtrack so I could listen to the song that underscores the whole shot, "Best Of My Love" by The Emotions, and imagine the camera swooping to and fro over and over and over in my mind. To this day whenever I hear that song it conjures up the shot and that movie going experience in my mind.

There has been this what-have-ya going around on the social networking device known as the Facebook where you can learn what song was #1 in the country on the date of your birth. And after a bit of time I decided to check it out and when I did I had to take a step back and compose myself. Do you know what song was #1 in the country on the date of my birth?

"Best Of My Love" by The Emotions.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

3 comments:

Andy Buckle said...

Wow! That is an amazing story!

SJHoneywell said...

Synchronicity works in strange ways.

Nick Prigge said...

I do believe in synchronicity so.